senate Bill S. 3379

Should the Commerce Dept. Have More Flexibility to Punish China for Trade Cheating?

Argument in favor

Unfair trade cheating by China hurts U.S. industries and workers. Empowering the Commerce Department to address this issue benefits U.S. companies and their employees, ensuring that U.S. trade policies are enforced to ensure fair markets.

A bipartisan bill such as this can transcend administrations and allow long term response capability. For that reason I support the bill which can apply to any trading partner.

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Argument opposed

Since Chinese trade cheating is an international issue, the U.S. shouldn’t take China on alone. We should instead work with the G7 and World Trade Organization, as well as within the bounds of international trade agreements, to put pressure on China on multiple fronts.

Congress has surrendered too much of the authority granted to it by Article 1 of the U. S. Constitution. Members of the Congress who feel unable to accept the responsibility that accompanies this authority should step aside in deference of someone who is willing to accept the responsibility.

Since Chinese trade cheating is an international issue, the U.S. shouldn’t take China on alone. We should instead work with the G7 and World Trade Organization, as well as within the bounds of international trade agreements, to put pressure on China on multiple fronts.

Bill Data

What is Senate Bill S. 3379?

This bill — known as the Play by the Rules Act — would give the Commerce Dept. additional flexibility when reviewing anti-circumvention petitions filed against non-market economies like China. It’d allow the Commerce Dept. to combat China’s attempts to circumvent international fair trade rules by taking actions related to anti-dumping — deterring imports priced at below market-value — and imposing countervailing duties (ie tariffs) in response to such dumping.

Impact

International trade; Department of Commerce; and China.

Cost of Senate Bill S. 3379

A CBO cost estimate for this bill is unavailable.

More Information

“China has refused to play by the international trade rules they agreed to and they should be held accountable. This bipartisan legislation will give the Commerce Department the flexibility it needs to take stronger actions that protect American workers and businesses against China cheating.”

“Fair trade rules and policies help protect U.S. jobs and ensure economic growth in our country. Unfortunately, there are times that non-market economies refuse to adhere to those policies or manipulate the system to put the United States at a disadvantage. When that happens, it’s important that we hold those countries accountable to ensure we are putting American jobs and the American economy first. This bipartisan legislation will provide the Commerce Department the flexibility it needs to hold bad actors accountable and ensure that our trade policies are followed and respected.”

Xinhua, Beijing’s official news agency, has also called blaming China for the global steel industry’s problems a “lame and lazy excuse for protectionism.” In a commentary piece, Xinhua warned against the imposition of protective tariffs, saying that “blaming other countries is always an easy, sure-fire way for politicians to whip up a storm over domestic economic woes, but finger-pointing and protectionism are counter-productive.”

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), in a recent report, has argued that rather than countering Chinese trade manipulations by raising tariffs, the U.S. should instead use a global free-trade regime against China. This would mean bringing more actions against China in the World Trade Organization (WTO); working to update WTO rules to capture Chinese cheating (and to begin thinking of a new organization for regulating international trade if the WTO proves inadequate); joining, and influencing the formation of, multilateral agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership; and forging bilateral agreements with up-to-date standards that reinforce principles that China undermines. The ITIF report’s authors argue that the stakes of this realignment of U.S. trade policy are huge, writing that:

“A failure to complete and to implement next-generation trade agreements that establish higher-standard rules, principles, and norms for market-based global trade will only cede the terms and structure of global trade to Chinese leadership.”

“I would strongly urge that rather than unilaterally impose tariffs that make the U.S. look like the rule breakers, we should work with the rest of the G7 to compel compliance by China through coordinated forceful trade action. At the end of the day, China has much to lose from being isolated from the international regime, and would almost certainly respond to coordinated insistence on compliance.”

“The Chinese government has subsidized plywood dumped by Chinese companies in American markets. Last year, the U.S. took action and assessed anti-dumping duties, which allowed Columbia Forest Products to re-hire workers in Wisconsin, Maine, Vermont, North Carolina, Oregon, Virginia, and West Virginia. Unfortunately, China is circumventing the duties, threatening to undo our progress. [This] legislation provides the Commerce Department with the tools we need to crack down on trade cheating from China.”

Of Note: As defined by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), circumvention is “getting around commitments in the WTO such as commitments to limit agricultural export subsidies. It includes: avoiding quotas and other restrictions by altering the country of origin of a product; measures taken by exporters to evade anti-dumping or countervailing duties.”

China has been repeatedly accused of circumventing anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders for a range of products, including steel, mattress innersprings, plywood, and furniture. In the case of steel, four steel producers filed a petition in September 2016, charging China with circumventing anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders for corrosion-resistant carbon steel and cold-rolled carbon steel by sending substrate materials for Vietnam for processing and re-exporting.

By changing the origin of products, circumvention allows producers to pay lower duties than they would otherwise have. For example, in a 2008 trade involving mattress innersprings from China, Chinese producers received anti-dumping duties of 165-235%, while South African and Vietnamese producers received duties of 116-121%. In order to pay lower duties, Chinese producers began shipping innersprings to Malaysia that were then re-exported to the U.S. to avoid the higher duties levied on Chinese mattress innersprings.

Congress has surrendered too much of the authority granted to it by Article 1 of the U. S. Constitution. Members of the Congress who feel unable to accept the responsibility that accompanies this authority should step aside in deference of someone who is willing to accept the responsibility.

What really upsets me about what's going on with China, is no one in our government is making sure what comes from China into our country is safe products, our companies went to China because of the cheap labor, yet we have had numerous Products that are no good come into our country, we put regulations on our companies in America ,yet we put none on China. As far as I can see past administrations, have not protected the American people.

Since Chinese trade cheating is an international issue, the U.S. shouldn’t take China on alone. We should instead work with the G7 and World Trade Organization, as well as within the bounds of international trade agreements, to put pressure on China on multiple fronts.

No these Tarriffs are only being used punish the American tax payers and subsidizing more adversely effected industries such as the farmers. These are even further taxes upon the common people. Let us freely trade!

I vote ‘Nay’, not because I don’t think it’s not needed, but because it’s an international issue that the U.S., along with other countries would have a stronger opposition voice, than the U.S. by itself. In addition, #45 has no clue about governmental international negotiations. As he continues to have a foot in the door with his personal businesses, his negotiations are purely selfish. #45 cannot be a part of the trade relationship for our country when his personal companies continues to use China to obtain products or for manufacturing purposes.

The Executive Branch has been given, in my opinion, more flexibility than he is capable of handling. While I recognize that China has done some shady dealings with the US—it happened under Obama too—we are funding ourselves in a trade war with China because the president is trying to do national economics the same insane way he does business. We need only look at his many failed ventures to know that he doesn’t know economics, and neither do those he has appointed to the position. Hold this but accountable!

Absolutely. For years and years China has encouraged/shelter their companies, Chinese manufacturers that literarily copy western manufacturers’ products and let them get away with copyright infringement by sheltering them against international prosecution. Anything that can be done to make the Chinese government understand that intellectual property is something they and their companies should respect is absolutely welcome.